Governor Kathy Hochul announced July 30 that New York State will step up enforcement, launch an education campaign for gun dealers, expand an interstate task force on illegal guns and pursue legislative changes to blunt the effect of proposed federal rollbacks to ATF firearm rules.
What the state will do
The administration said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has proposed changes to more than 30 rules that would make it easier for prohibited or dangerous individuals to obtain firearms and make federal enforcement against irresponsible dealers more difficult. In response, New York will use state resources to reduce the expected public-safety impacts.
- Prioritize State Police inspections. The New York State Police will prioritize onsite inspections of state-licensed firearms dealers that are traced to crime guns and coordinate with the Attorney General on enforcement where appropriate.
- Expand the Interstate Task Force on Illegal Guns. The task force, originally convened in 2022 and made up of agencies across several Northeastern states, will reconvene with an expanded scope for coordinated information-sharing and strategy development to address trafficking linked to the ATF changes.
- Launch a public awareness campaign for dealers. The Division of Criminal Justice Services, working with state police, will run direct mail and email outreach to remind firearm dealers and licensing officials that New York laws remain in effect despite federal rollbacks.
- Explore legislative fixes. At the start of the next legislative session the governor plans to introduce a bill to require in-person sales of firearms in New York — aligning firearm sales procedures with existing laws for ammunition sales — and to pursue other statutory changes to preserve state-level protections.
Support from coalitions and prosecutors
The announcement included statements of support from state and national gun-violence-prevention groups (Everytown for Gun Safety, Giffords, Brady, Moms Demand Action and New Yorkers Against Gun Violence) and several elected officials, including district attorneys and borough presidents who said the proposed ATF changes risk undermining progress on gun violence and trafficking.
The administration framed the actions as a state-level countermeasure to what it described as an abandonment by the federal agency to hold bad actors in the firearms industry accountable.
